Sunday, April 15, 2012

No Doubt

John 20:19-31

April 15, 2012/Second Sunday in Eastertide

In
the last few days I’ve discovered a blog site called PostSecret.It was created by a man named Frank
Warren.In 2004 Warren decided to do
what seemed to be a crazy experiment.He
walked around Washington, DC and handed people blank, self-addressed, stamped
postcards.He asked the people who took
them to share a secret.It could be any
secret they chose.Just write it down on
the postcard and send it to him.

In
the weeks to come he began to receive postcards, some bought, even more
homemade, from people all over the world sharing their secrets.But the curious thing is that Frank Warren
doesn’t just collect these secrets.He
posts them on PostSecret.In a video I
watched of him giving a brief talk and introduction about PostSecret he showed
a variety of the postcards that people have sent to him since he first began
this project.

Some
are funny.Someone created a postcard
out of part of a Starbucks cup with the secret, “I give decaf to people who are
rude to me.”

Some
are poignant.A picture of a sleeping
baby with the words, “Dear Birthmother, I have good parents.I’ve found love.I’m happy.”

Or
the secret that was written on the back of a sealed envelope, “Inside this
envelope are the ripped up pieces of a suicide note I wrote but didn’t
use.I can’t believe how happy I
am.(now).”

Some
secrets are salacious.Some are
scandalous.A memorable one is a
compilation of faces of male celebrities.The secret?“One of these men is
the father of my son.He pays me a lot
of money to keep this a secret.”

And
some are ominous and disturbing.One
postcard shows a drawing of the twin towers burning.The secret teller writes, “Everyone who knew
me before 9/11 believes I’m dead.”

It
seems that telling secrets to a complete stranger is a cathartic
experience.Our secrets express our
frailties, our fears and the commonalities of our human experience.Commonalities that are too easily forgotten
if we don’t look beneath the surface to the secrets.

The
reason I speak of secrets this morning is because I think this story about
Thomas expresses a secret many of us of the Christian faith have but are too scared
to admit.What’s our secret?We have doubts.

Maybe
I’m wrong.Maybe none of you have any
doubts about your faith.Or if you do,
maybe you’re perfectly willing to admit that.But I know in my own experience that it can be distressing, to say the
least, to admit to ourselves that our faith isn’t just lacking in strength but
can feel almost non-existent, much less share that with anyone else.I suspect that doubt about our faith is one
of our biggest secrets as Christians; at least it’s one that may bother us the
most.

The
traditional interpretation of this passage from John’s gospel has served to
reinforce the shame of that secret.Thomas, aka “Doubting Thomas,” seems to be rebuked by Jesus for lack of
faith, for doubting the resurrection, for doubting everything that Jesus had
told them.

“Unless
I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my fingers in the mark of the
nails and my hand on his side, I will not believe.”

Thomas was absent when Jesus made
his appearance to the disciples.They
were gathered together behind locked doors out of fear, when suddenly Jesus was
there, standing among them.

The first words he spoke to them
were a greeting of peace.“Peace be with
you.”Then Jesus showed the disciples
his hands and his side.And they
rejoiced at seeing the Lord.Then again
Jesus greets them with his words of peace, and he proceeds to commission them
for ministry.

“As my father has sent me, so I send
you.”As he says this, he breathes on
them, covering them with the Holy Spirit.He also gives them authority to forgive or retain sins.They are commissioned and empowered to spread
the word.

But Thomas was not there to witness
this dramatic event.Thomas the Twin, or
Doubting Thomas.

Doubting Thomas – this name probably
sums up the way most of us have heard this story over the years.When I was a child, the last thing any of us
wanted to be told in our Sunday School classes was that we were acting or
sounding like a Doubting Thomas.It
wasn’t good to be like Thomas.Thomas
doubted.He was skeptical and demanded
tangible, physical proof that Jesus was really resurrected before he would
believe it.Doubting Thomas was not a
flattering or complimentary nickname to be given.Hence, why I think it becomes a shameful
secret for so many of us to admit our doubts.

But what about the others?Jesus also appeared to them and showed them
his hands and his side.Mary Magdalene
announced to them, quite forcefully, that she had seen the Lord.But the disciples didn’t trust her word any more
than Thomas trusted theirs.The
disciples were staying in a locked room for fear of the Jews.The Jews in this context are the powers and
the authorities that conspired to put Jesus to death.

The sudden presence of Jesus among
them surely must have shocked and frightened them.Mary Magdalene’s report of seeing the Lord,
speaking with the Lord, and even trying to embrace him had not lessened the
disciples’ fear at his crucifixion.It
had not lessened their lack of belief.

It is only when Jesus appears to them and shows his hands and his side
that they believe and rejoice. They too needed proof that Jesus was really
alive.Just like Thomas.

But Thomas put into words what he
required for faith.As one commentator
said, he set out the conditions for his faith.He needed to see the marks of the nails on Jesus’ hands.He needed to touch them and to touch the
place where the sword pierced Jesus’ side.

So a week later Jesus comes again to
the disciples, to Thomas.He gives
Thomas what he asked for.He gives
Thomas permission to go ahead, touch him, place his hands on the marks left by
the nails, touch him.See firsthand the
proof of the resurrection.Thomas says,
“Show me.”And Jesus says, “Here I
am.”Jesus offers himself completely to
Thomas.

And it is here that the
misconceptions about Thomas happen.Doubting
Thomas.Whenever I’ve heard this story
read and interpreted, it’s most often seen as a story about doubt, about
cynicism.Thomas is the cynical,
skeptical doubter.Yet it seems to me
that this text is not so much about doubt as it is about faith. It’s not about cynicism and skepticism as it
is about believing.

Most of the translations of the
Bible we have at our disposal, including the NRSV, the one I use, translate
Jesus as saying, “doubt.”Do not
doubt.But the Greek word for doubt is
not used in this story at all.The more
literal translation for the verb apistos
is “unbelieving.”Jesus tells Thomas,
“Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

Do not be unbelieving, but
believing.

Now maybe to make a distinction
between doubt and unbelieving is like talking about two sides of the same coin,
but making that distinction takes us in very different directions.

Do not be unbelieving, but
believing.Go from being without faith
to having faith.Not having faith isn’t
the same as being cynical about faith, is it?It’s not quite the same thing as doubt.

Jesus offered to Thomas exactly what
he asked for.He told him to touch the
marks of the nails on his hands and to put his hand on Jesus side.Jesus offered himself as motivation, as a
sign for Thomas to believe, to have faith, to go from unbelieving to believing.

The text doesn’t say specifically
that Thomas took Jesus up on his offer, but we do know that when Jesus offers
himself as proof and motivation for faith, Thomas utters one of the most
profound confessions of faith in the gospel.“My Lord and my God.”Thomas is
not exclaiming here.He is confessing.He is confessing his faith.My Lord and my God.

When we examine the interaction
between Jesus and Thomas in this light, then the next words of Jesus sound
different as well.“Have you believed
because you have seen me?Blessed are
those who have not seen me and yet have come to believe.”

Is Jesus trying to shame or scold
Thomas?That’s what many of us have had
drummed into us.That’s why expressing
our doubts or our unbelief has become such a shameful secret.Or was Jesus confirming what had just
happened?And in his confirmation, he
opened the door to faith for generations of believers yet to come.

I don’t believe that Jesus was
scolding Thomas for wanting to see Jesus with his own two eyes, for wanting
proof of the resurrection.Instead Jesus
offered hope to Thomas and to a whole world of others through Thomas.What this passage promises all of us is that
our faith is not disadvantaged because we were not firsthand witnesses to Jesus
and his ministry, his life, his death and his resurrection.“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe.”

Jesus gave Thomas and the other
disciples a sign.A sign that points
beyond itself to the full glory of God achieved through Jesus.

So what are our signs?We could certainly point to the sign of God’s
grace that we receive in the sacraments.Sharing in the Lord’s Supper today is one sort of sign.But it’s been my own experience that I see
signs of God’s love in past events.Whenever I’m doubting, whenever I’m convinced that I don’t have the
strength of belief to take one more step, I look back over my life.I review the different ways that God has
upheld me. I remember how God has been present in my life, even when –
especially when – I was least aware of that presence.My doubts, my fears, my unbelief may seem
overwhelming in this moment, but when I can step back and see this moment in
light of all those other moments, I find some reassurance of God.Reassurance of God.I trust God in memory.Isn’t that what scripture is for us?Trusting God in memory?The scripture narrative is the collective
memory of all the saints.We trust God
in memory.

Jesus told the disciples to remember
him in the bread and the cup.And when
they remember, they find the strength and the courage and the faith to continue
on.So may we do the same.May we continue on, knowing that sometimes we
doubt, we falter and lose our way.But
we trust God in memory, believing, in spite of our doubts, that if we can see
God’s handprint on the past, surely that handprint marks our future as well.No doubt.Amen.